Blue Catfish Vs. Blue Crabs

Fishy Fridays

Weekly spotlight on fisheries science journal articles

 

Jeff Kopaska
AFS Executive Director
jkopaska@fisheries.org

As I mentioned last week, I was recently in Washington, D.C., representing AFS to a number of Congressional staffers, and meeting with fisheries folks from a variety of federal agencies.  I wrote last week about my meeting with USGS, and this week I am highlighting the Coop Units. Many of you are probably aware that the Ecosystems Mission Area of USGS has been zero-funded/eliminated in the President’s budget, including the Coop Units.  The most important next step you as an individual in fisheries can take is to email/call your congressional representatives (especially Senators) and urge them to include funding for the Coop Units, Science Centers, and other aspects of the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area in their 2026 Appropriations.  You can find more information here: https://fisheries.org/federal-workforce-and-budget-cuts/. There is a message you can copy and paste, and I would encourage including Ecosystems Mission Area alongside Cooperative Research Units.  Many other areas, such as Sea Grant, are also at risk.

This week’s paper comes from Marine & Coastal Fisheries, and was supported by the Virginia Tech Coop Unit, Sport Fish Restoration, and Sea Grant.  Such a great example of fisheries collaboration. This study undertook a Management Strategy Evaluation, based on Blue Catfish management in the James River in Virginia. Some of the challenges to be addressed were that Blue Catfish provide a valuable sportfishing trophy fishery, they are a valuable recreational and commercial fishery resource, they have a negative impact on a valuable blue crab fishery as well as numerous species of greatest conservation need, and they are an invasive species. Sounds like a normal day of balancing priorities for a lot of fisheries managers I know! The modeling exercise provided great insight into the likely impacts of a variety of potential management scenarios, but the bad news is, there is no silver bullet.  The models indicate that after 25 years, no scenario results in the preferred outcome.  Valuable information nonetheless!  Read and enjoy, and thanks to the great list of authors for contributing this work!

Management strategy evaluation to assess trade-offs associated with invasive Blue Catfish fisheries and predation impacts